A synopsis of the story

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
is set ten years after Episode I. The film opens with an assassination attempt
on Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman), who is now a Senator for the planet Naboo.
The attempt fails but, to keep Padme safe, Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid)
requests that Padme be placed under the protection of the Jedi Knight Obi-Wan
Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his apprentice Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christen).
After a second attempt is made on Padme’s life, Jedi masters Yoda (voice of
Frank Oz) and Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) assign Obi-Wan to track down the
assassin. Anakin and Padme are sent to Naboo for safe keeping and their
relationship develops.

Obi-Wan’s finds the assassin, a bounty hunter by the name of Jango Fett
(Temuera Morison) on the planet Kamino where Obi-Wan also discovers a secret
cloned army. After failing to capture the assassin, Obi-Wan follows Jango Fett
to the planet Geonosis were Obi-Wan discovers the real culprit behind the
assassination attempts, a Jedi master named Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), who
has turned to the Dark-side of the Force.

Meanwhile, Anakin and Padme face more peril
as they travel to the planet Tatooine after Anakin has premonitions that his
mother is in terrible danger.

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

The film contains stylised sci/fi action
violence and extended battle scenes depicting war between robot droids, war
machines and human clones. Several scenes depict dismemberment and several
human characters are killed during the course of the film; blood and gore is
almost non-existent. Examples include:

a perilous
action sequence involves Obi-Wan jumping through the plate glass window of a
high rise apartment and falling, before grabbing hold of a flying droid/machine.
Obi-Wan dangles from the machine which nearly collides with other vehicles as
it flies along at speed. A woman fires a laser rifle at Obi-Wan causing Obi-Wan
to fall and plummet to the ground; Obi-Wan lands safely on top of another
speeding vehicle.

A woman points a gun at Obi-Wan but before
she can shoot, Obi-Wan uses his light sabre to sever her forearm; we see a
quick glimpse of the woman’s forearm lying on the ground.

Through the film we see light sabres sever
various body parts from an array of alien creatures. Alien creatures are sliced
down the middle with the two halves of their body falling away. A man is decapitated
by a light sabre with his helmeted head rolling away - the man’s son witnesses
the event and later picks up the severed helmeted head and stares at it. Anakin
has his forearm severed by a light sabre leaving a smoking stump. No blood and
gore is depicted in any scene involving dismemberment.

A woman is shot in the neck and killed by a
poisonous dart.

One scene depicts and extended stylised
action fight between Obi-Wan and a bounty hunter including numerous kicks and
punches to the body and a brutal head-butt. The bounty hunter fires his laser
gun and a rocket at Obi-Wan, resulting in explosions and fire, and we see them fall
from a high-rise building to dangle from a rope. Both survive uninjured.

One scene depicts Anakin’s mother tied to a
wooden frame. She has several cuts to her face with the inference being that
she had been physically abused. Anakin cuts her down and she dies in his arms;
Anakin appears very distraught with tears running down his face. In a fit of
intense rage, we see Anakin ruthlessly kill two humanoid aliens. The scene
ends, but later we hear a distraught Anakin talking about killing entire
families of aliens including women and children, saying that he slaughtered
them like animals.

Padme, Anakin and Obi-Wan are tied to stone
pillars in an arena where they are left to be killed by three monstrous alien
creatures. A tiger-like creature kills a guard, shaking the guard in its jaws
and then leaving the guard dead on the ground. The same creature slashes Padme
across her back with its claws, leaving several long bloody gashes across her
back as Padme screams.

One of the film’s final scenes depicts an
extended battle between thousands of droid/robots and thousands of human cloned
warriors during which we see copious amounts of laser fire. Missiles are fired
into a giant spaceship which explodes and falls to the ground.

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent
scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could
scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

One scene contains the images of thousands
of cloned foetuses in large containers.

The scene in which a helmeted man
being decapitated. This is witnessed by his young son, who picks up the helmeted head
and stares at it.

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Children in this age group are unlikely to be
disturbed by anything in this film

Product placement

While no product placement occurs in the film,
an array of associated toys and other merchandise has been marketed.

Sexual references

The film contains a couple of low-level
sexual inferences. Examples include:

In one scene we see Anakin looking at Padme
with a somewhat lustful look in his eyes. Padme tells Anakin not to look at her
that way as it makes her feel uncomfortable.

Padme asks Anakin if as a Jedi he is
allowed to love and to have attachments. Anakin tells Padme that it is
forbidden, but then goes on to say that compassion is central to a Jedi’s life
and that you might say they are encouraged to love.

Anakin tells Padme that he is haunted by
the kiss she should have never have given him.

Padme tells Anakin that she loves him.

Nudity and sexual activity

The film contains some partial nudity and
mild sexual activity. Examples include:

Women wearing tight fitting and low-cut
clothing

One scene depicts Anakin lightly touching
Padme on her bare back following which they kiss passionately. In two later
scenes we see Padme and Anakin kissing.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this
movie, including:

In a nightclub scene we see patrons,
including Obi Wan, drinking from glasses containing multi-coloured drinks. During
the same scene, a man approaches Obi-Wan and asks him if he wants to buy some
“Death Sticks” and we see the man holding items that appear very similar to
cigarettes. Obi-Wan refuses and sends the man away.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this
movie, including:

None of concern

In a nutshell

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
is science fiction action film targeting younger adolescents and older viewers but
likely to be too scary for under 10s and some older children. The
film will easily entertain the target audience although the film’s running time
of 142 minutes may make the film a bit long for some viewers.

The main messages from this movie are:

Harbouring feeling of anger and hatred can
corrupt what is good in people and causes destructive changes that bring out
the worst.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

Compassion: The Jedi are taught to show
companion towards others.

Selflessness/self sacrifice: Padme is
totally selfless in the manner in which she serves the inhabitants of her home
world; she is always willing to put their needs before her own. Padme also
demonstrate self sacrifice when she put her own life at risk to rescue Obi-Wan.

Family ties: Anakin demonstrates strong
family ties when he sacrifices all in an attempt to rescue his mother.

This movie could also give parents the
opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their
real-life consequences, such as:

Throughout the film, Anakin demonstrates an
attitude of arrogance and defiance. Parents may wish to discuss how in
real life arrogant behaviour may have negative consequences.